Do Not Mess With The Little Prince
by justanoutlaw
Summary: Regina is trying to figure out just why her normally well behaved boy has been acting out.


This was a prompt submitted to me by an anonymous user on Tumblr from a prompt post I reblogged:

"I'm sorry, you said what to your teacher?"

Set before season 1, when Henry was 8.

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Henry sat on the chair inside the principal's office, swinging his legs. He knew he was probably going to be in a lot of trouble. It wasn't his fault, at least not in his mind. It was a stupid assignment and he wasn't going to take that back.

He heard the door open and shut, heels clicking on the floor not long after that. He looked up to see his mother standing there, wearing one of her pantsuits. He gnawed on her lip, she did not look happy.

"Would you like to explain to me why they wanted me to come here?" She asked.

Before he could answer, the door opened and the principal stepped out, gesturing to the office. Henry stood up, following his mom inside. Together, they sat in front of Mr. Baker's desk, while he drummed his fingers on it.

"Well Henry, would you like to tell your mother what you did?" Henry didn't respond, he just kept his eyes on his blazer. The principal sighed. "Very well. Henry told his teacher that he wasn't going to go to the art room and then told her she was stupid."

Regina raised an eyebrow, looking back at her son. "I'm sorry, you said what to your teacher?" Henry squirmed in his seat, refusing to make eye contact with her.

"He then went onto say that she wasn't the boss of him and couldn't tell him what to do. When she insisted he go, he kicked her."

Regina felt as though she was in an alternate universe. Henry spoke his mind, he had since the second he learned to talk. However, he wasn't a violent child. He typically respected his teachers and other authority figures, she had raised him to do so. He was also being uncharacteristically quiet in that moment. She knew she could get him to talk, but not in that setting.

"I am very sorry, Mr. Baker," she finally said once she had cleared her throat. "I promise you that I will handle this at home and will have Henry write an apology letter to his teacher."

Mr. Baker nodded. "Very well. Typically, a student in his position would be suspended, but given that it's the last week of school, I think he'll be fine just going home."

Regina nodded and stood up, adjusting her purse over her shoulder. She shook hands with the principal before turning to Henry.

"Let's go," she said, leading him out the door and to her car. He got in the backseat, still staying as quiet as a church mouse. "Would you like to explain why you didn't want to go to art class today? I thought that was one of your favorite subjects."

"I knew what project we were going to be doing and it's dumb," Henry mumbled.

"We can't always do something exciting," she reminded him. "That's no excuse to kick your teacher or be disrespectful. You're grounded for a week. No comic books or video games." Henry didn't even protest, which worried her a bit. "Henry, what is going on? You never behave this way, I raised you better than that."

"I'm still going to be in trouble."

"That may be, but I want to know what's going on with you."

Henry sighed, picking at a loose thread on his backpack. He knew his mom was going to figure it out anyway. She was smart, she somehow always knew what he was going to do before he did it.

"They were going to be making Father's Day crafts."

Regina paused for a minute. "Oh?"

"Ms. Elmer said I could just color in a piece of paper and Billy overheard. He started making fun of me because I didn't have a dad to make a craft for."

Regina's grip on the steering wheel tightened, her mouth drawing a thin line. She remembered Billy from the Enchanted Forest. He had been a big bully to all the children in his village. It seemed being stuck at 8 years old for the past 26 years hadn't changed that. It hadn't bothered her until now-he was messing with her little prince.

"Why didn't you tell your teacher that?" She asked.

Henry shrugged. "I dunno. I just…I didn't want to be the only one not making something, so I didn't want to go at all."

"I can understand that," Regina said, her voice falling calm again. "Billy shouldn't have made fun of you like that."

"I don't even need a dad, I don't know why it bothered me."

"Because he was mean to you about it, that wasn't right. Next time he or anyone makes fun of you, tell an adult. Don't take it out on them, okay?"

Henry nodded. "Alright. I'm sorry, Mom."

"I know you are. You still have to write an apology letter to your teacher and you are still grounded, but I'm going to handle Billy."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll have a word with his parents. Now, how would you like to come back to the office with me and you can help me out?"

Henry grinned at the idea and nodded. Regina matched his smile and blew him a kiss in the backseat. She would make sure that Billy never hurt her little prince again. No one messed with her family.

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As always, prompts are accepted on my Tumblr accounts: just-an-outlaw and justanoutlawfanfiction!


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